Writing a letter of Recommendation

[dynamite]

So, I've had the pleasant experience of asking for letters of rec, but I've now been asked to write my first for a medical student applying in psych. So, what would you guys think is necessary to include in a letter?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Tradewind]

Details that indicate you know the person, more than 3 sentences of text (but preferably less than 1 page, or 1.5 pages at most), and your credentials.

Err on the positive, but if there are real concerns, either allude to them, or if able, decline writing a letter. (This isn't always possible, depending on your role..)

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Details that indicate you know the person, more than 3 sentences of text (but preferably less than 1 page, or 1.5 pages at most), and your credentials.

Err on the positive, but if there are real concerns, either allude to them, or if able, decline writing a letter. (This isn't always possible, depending on your role..)

Bottom line: indicate that you would LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOVE to have this student as a resident in your program!

 

[peppy]

Err on the positive, but if there are real concerns, either allude to them, or if able, decline writing a letter. (This isn't always possible, depending on your role..)

Are there really situations where a student would be better off getting a negative letter over no letter at all? No matter what your role, I really think if you have nothing nice to say about the student, it is far kinder and more fair to tell the student something like you're "too busy with other letter requests" or "don't know them well enough to give them a sufficiently strong letter" if you can't be honest with them about why you don't want to recommend them for residency. Then they have the option to find someone else who may have a better impression of them...and if *nobody* wants to write them a letter than that really is a red flag.
Sabotaging someone's application with a negative letter is a serious matter.
I think people who don't know how it feels to go unmatched don't appreciate just how devastating and frightening it can be to find yourself without a job after all the debt and years of training. I don't have any reason to think any of my letter writers said bad things about me, but if I did find out that was why I wound up going unmatched (after wasting thousands of dollars on interviews and putting my loved ones through a lot of grief and stress) then I would be really angry at the person who thought that it was their place to try to derail my career based on a few weeks of contact that may not be representative of what I'm capable of.

If someone is so completely inept that you think they would be dangerously bad as a resident, then you should be talking to the student and their dean about remediation or something like that, rather than trying to keep them out of residency with a negative letter. If it is conceivable that your negative impression of a student could be due to a misunderstanding, a personality conflict, etc. then I believe it is never appropriate to pretend to be helping them while actually doing harm to their application.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

Are there really situations where a student would be better off getting a negative letter over no letter at all? No matter what your role, I really think if you have nothing nice to say about the student, it is far kinder and more fair to tell the student something like you're "too busy with other letter requests" or "don't know them well enough to give them a sufficiently strong letter" if you can't be honest with them about why you don't want to recommend them for residency. Then they have the option to find someone else who may have a better impression of them...and if *nobody* wants to write them a letter than that really is a red flag.
Sabotaging someone's application with a negative letter is a serious matter.
I think people who don't know how it feels to go unmatched don't appreciate just how devastating and frightening it can be to find yourself without a job after all the debt and years of training. I don't have any reason to think any of my letter writers said bad things about me, but if I did find out that was why I wound up going unmatched (after wasting thousands of dollars on interviews and putting my loved ones through a lot of grief and stress) then I would be really angry at the person who thought that it was their place to try to derail my career based on a few weeks of contact that may not be representative of what I'm capable of.

If someone is so completely inept that you think they would be dangerously bad as a resident, then you should be talking to the student and their dean about remediation or something like that, rather than trying to keep them out of residency with a negative letter. If it is conceivable that your negative impression of a student could be due to a misunderstanding, a personality conflict, etc. then I believe it is never appropriate to pretend to be helping them while actually doing harm to their application.

 

[Tradewind]

Sabotaging someone's application with a negative letter is a serious matter...

I didn't say anything about sabotaging an application. As I said, decline if able, but some people are unable to do so. For example, Deans and Program Directors are often required to write letters of recommendation.

These circles are smaller than you'd think. So while LOR's should be glowing by definition, it's best not make every single applicant a superstar that's performed seven miracles. It really does get old, particularly when the letter doesn't match the rest of the application. No one will believe the LOR writer if every letter s/he writes describes Christ or Buddha.

I do agree with OPD's bottom line - if a PD really wants a medical student in his own program, that means something special.